Natalie Rupnow’s accomplice Alexander Paffendorf, 20, unmasked… as police reveal how he ‘helped her plot Wisconsin shooting’

The California man accused of plotting a coordinated attack with Wisconsin school shooter Natalie Rupnow has been photographed for the first time.

Alexander Paffendorf, 20, of Carlsbad, was detained by FBI agents on suspicion of “conspiracy” to coordinate a mass shooting at an undisclosed government building.

Paffendorf admitted to officers that he texted 15-year-old Rupnow about attacking a government building with a gun and explosives, according to court documents made public Wednesday.

A San Diego judge on Tuesday issued a restraining order under California’s red flag law against Paffendorf, requiring him to surrender all firearms and ammunition to police within 48 hours and banning him from acquiring any more weapons .

Shortly afterwards, neighbors told CBS8 they saw more than a dozen police cars enter the apartment complex where Paffendorf lives Tuesday evening and saw officers emerge from the building with what was described as a “black gun case.”

The order does not say which building he targeted or when he planned to carry out his attack. It also provides no details about his interactions with Rupnow, other than to say the man plotted a mass shooting with her.

Paffendorf appears to live with his father in the building where the police raided, according to the address details. A court hearing for Paffendorf is scheduled for Jan. 3.

The 20-year-old appears to have kept a low profile online, with DailyMail.com finding no social media accounts linked to his name. He also “got upset about having his photo taken,” according to a Facebook post from an account apparently linked to his father.

It was not immediately clear how Paffendorf knew Rupnow, and Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told the Journal Sentinel he had no information about the California arrest and referred questions to the FBI.

DailyMail.com has reached out to the FBI, San Diego Police Department and the San Diego Superior Court for comment.

Police are still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison fatally shot a fellow student and teacher before shooting herself on Monday, Barnes said.

Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition Wednesday.

The student killed in Monday’s school shooting was identified in an obituary as Rubi Patricia Vergara, 14, of Madison.

She was a freshman at the school and “an avid reader, enjoyed art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band,” the obituary said.

The Dane County Medical Examiner identified the slain teacher Wednesday evening as 42-year-old Erin Michelle West.

The school’s communications director, Barbara Wiers, said in a statement Wednesday evening that Vergara had attended the school since kindergarten.

West worked as a substitute teacher for three years before accepting a position as the school’s substitute coordinator and as a construction substitute teacher, Wiers said.

“Our hearts are heavy with these losses,” Wiers wrote in an email to AP.

It is unclear whether the victims were specifically targeted in the attack.

But Lyndsay O’Connor, mother of two survivors, suggested the regular study hall teacher, who was not there due to a ‘planned absence’, may have been Natalie’s target – although her idea has not been verified by police.

“We don’t know if her target was the original teacher or just the children in the classroom. She should have walked past the door and the door was open,” O’Connor said.

Rupnow had two guns with him during the attack, but only used one to carry out the attack, Barnes revealed Wednesday, noting he does not know how the teen obtained the weapons.

“We may never know what she was thinking that day, but we will do our best to add or provide as much information as possible to our audience,” he said.

Investigators do not know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack was planned in advance, the police chief added.

“I don’t know if she planned it that day or a week earlier,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”

Although Rupnow had two handguns, Barnes said he does not know how she obtained them and declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.

Police received a call at 10:57 a.m. Monday morning and within three minutes, county sheriff’s deputies had arrived at Abundant Life Christian School, which serves approximately 420 students. Local police arrived seconds later.

At 11:05 a.m., they said they found the gunman injured and recovered the weapon. Rupnow was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital.

At the same time, firefighters arrived on the scene and began caring for the victims.

Police, with the help of the FBI, have been searching online records and other sources, and have also spoken with the shooter’s parents and classmates in an effort to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes said.

Authorities raided the Rupnows’ Wisconsin home after the tragedy, and the shooter’s father has reportedly cooperated with the ongoing investigation.

Investigators have been trying to determine if the teen’s parents, Jeff and Melissa, had any involvement or contributed to Natalie’s actions.

Online court records show no criminal cases against her father, Jeffrey Rupnow, or her mother, Mellissa Rupnow.

They are divorced and share custody of their daughter, but she lived primarily with her father, according to court documents. Divorce records show Rupnow was in therapy in 2022, but don’t say why.

No decision has been made yet on whether Rupnow’s parents could face charges in connection with the shooting, Barnes said.

The school shooting was the latest of dozens in the United States in recent years, including deadly shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, Parkland, Florida and Uvalde, Texas.

But the Wisconsin shooting stands out because school shootings by female teens are extremely rare in the U.S., with men in their teens and 20s carrying out the majority of shootings, said David Riedman, founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database.

Abundant Life is a non-denominational Christian school offering kindergarten through high school. About 420 students attend the institution.